This invention relates to an electrical connector for connecting a mating contact and a connection object and, in particular, to an electrical connector for use in power connection in an electronic apparatus such as a mobile telephone.
For example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication (JP-U) No. H5-1185 discloses an electrical connector comprising a front housing part and a rear housing part integrally fixed to each other by screws.
To the front housing part, a front contact is attached. The front contact has a connecting portion formed at its front end and an elastic contacting portion formed at its rear end. The elastic contacting portion has a free end provided with a contact point.
To the rear housing part, a rear contact is attached. The rear contact has a terminal portion and a contacting portion. The rear housing part is fixed to a substrate by passing the terminal portion of the rear contact through a through hole formed in the substrate and soldering the terminal portion to a back surface of the substrate.
The contact point of the front contact and the contacting portion of the rear contact are brought into elastic contact with each other so that the front contact and the rear contact are electrically connected.
However, the electrical connector disclosed in the above-mentioned publication is disadvantageous in the following respects. In case where the front contact attached to the front housing part has a defect such as corrosion or contamination, the front contact must be exchanged. In an exchanging operation of the front contact, the front housing part is removed from the rear housing part. Then, the front contact is removed from the front housing part and replaced by a new front contact. Finally, the front housing is fixed to the rear housing by the screws to assemble the connector again. Thus, the exchanging operation is complicated and troublesome.
In the exchanging operation of the front contact, the connector must be assembled again fully taking into account a positional accuracy of a portion where the contact point of the front contact and the contacting portion of the rear contact are contacted with each other after assembling. Thus, it is troublesome and time consuming to assemble the connector.